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Thaddius the Large posted:Man it’s been years since people constantly linked Goblins, I feel like I just lost The Game I'm sad. : (
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Jan 31, 2024 04:42
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Because of the recent conversation I just checked out the latest update of Goblins and jesus christ every single character is some sort of paragon template now.
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Jan 31, 2024 06:10
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...okay I'm morbidly curious, what's the rationale there?
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Jan 31, 2024 13:04
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SKULL.GIF posted:How much Kickstarter content does he have left to finish? I wonder if production on the main comic will pick back up once the backlog is cleared. According to his last major update (from 2018!) he’s got 4 bonus pdf stories still to do plus an unspecified number of crayon drawings. Back in 2020 he said he’d done a substantial part of the CPPD story that year, but then decided to scrap it all as he didn’t feel comfortable with what he’d written. No updates since!
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Jan 31, 2024 13:15
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It's been years since I read Goblins. Considering how slow the comic updated when I stopped, that should be, what, 20 pages to read?
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Jan 31, 2024 13:17
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Slashrat posted:This is basically what happened with Howard Tayler when he got done with Schlock Mercenary, afaik. Immediately afterward, he teased a spin-off project, but shortly afterward announced that he realized how much he actually enjoyed not posting a comic strip daily after having done so every day for 20 years, so he decided to go on indefinite vacation instead. Rich might not have been posting pages at the same pace, for understandable reasons, but I could totally see him coming to the same conclusion when it's all done. Howard is still writing stuff, just not comics. He's still on the Writing Excuses podcast, and apparently working on some Schlock universe books. He's also doing non-Schlock stuff now that it isn't consuming his life.
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Jan 31, 2024 14:51
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Good news, everyone! It seems like the end of the comic is looming at last, and it's not eight years from nowthetoughestbean posted:I don’t know anything about the reporter but Pandaily is reporting that Tencent is in early talks to acquire the Dungeons and Dragons IP from Hasbro
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Feb 1, 2024 10:25
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Nenonen posted:Good news, everyone! It seems like the end of the comic is looming at last, and it's not eight years from now
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Feb 1, 2024 10:37
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Sure BG3 was a megahit, but it also cost half a decade of time and on the order of $100m to develop. You can make nearly as much money by licensing it to a Chinese megacorp and it's none of the work! There's no way there could possibly be any downside, such as hurting the brand and harming the marketing of your core product, and even if it did you'll already have collected several years of bonuses by that point so gently caress em.
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Feb 1, 2024 11:59
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habeasdorkus posted:Sure BG3 was a megahit, but it also cost half a decade of time and on the order of $100m to develop. You can make nearly as much money by licensing it to a Chinese megacorp and it's none of the work! There's no way there could possibly be any downside, such as hurting the brand and harming the marketing of your core product, and even if it did you'll already have collected several years of bonuses by that point so gently caress em. According to that article, if the deal doesn't happen, Hasbro will go bankrupt as they're having liquidity issues
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Feb 1, 2024 13:36
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At the same time, they haven't suspended their dividend. Which, lol.
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Feb 1, 2024 13:46
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habeasdorkus posted:Sure BG3 was a megahit, but it also cost half a decade of time and on the order of $100m to develop. You can make nearly as much money by licensing it to a Chinese megacorp and it's none of the work! There's no way there could possibly be any downside, such as hurting the brand and harming the marketing of your core product, and even if it did you'll already have collected several years of bonuses by that point so gently caress em.
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Feb 1, 2024 14:40
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I dunno I'm sure we'll get some neat D&D games too. A D&D version of Genshin/HSR could be cool.
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Feb 1, 2024 15:34
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Raenir Salazar posted:I dunno I'm sure we'll get some neat D&D games too. A D&D version of Genshin/HSR could be cool. Roll on cr 5 loot table, $50
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Feb 1, 2024 15:35
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enigma105 posted:Howard is still writing stuff, just not comics. He's still on the Writing Excuses podcast, and apparently working on some Schlock universe books. He's also doing non-Schlock stuff now that it isn't consuming his life. Plus he's got Long Covid.
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Feb 1, 2024 15:47
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habeasdorkus posted:Sure BG3 was a megahit, but it also cost half a decade of time and on the order of $100m to develop. You can make nearly as much money by licensing it to a Chinese megacorp and it's none of the work! There's no way there could possibly be any downside, such as hurting the brand and harming the marketing of your core product, and even if it did you'll already have collected several years of bonuses by that point so gently caress em. Who do you think owns Larian?
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Feb 1, 2024 16:14
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Schwarzwald posted:Who do you think owns Larian? They're independent. TenCent has an investment in them, but does not own them.
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Feb 1, 2024 16:16
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I'm trying to imagine the unlikely but amusing situation of the parent company of the D&D company going bankrupt. Like, is all that IP and studios suddenly get firesale'd or auctioned off ala THQ or something? It'd be funny if no one could legally use D&D poo poo anymore because its trapped in rights limbo.
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Feb 2, 2024 05:06
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Hasbro is said company. They also have Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, and Power Rangers
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Feb 2, 2024 05:20
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John Wick of Dogs posted:Hasbro is said company. They also have Transformers, GI Joe, My Little Pony, and Power Rangers Yeah, that's what I mean. That's a ton of juicy IP suddenly up for grabs if they go bankrupt.
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Feb 2, 2024 05:29
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Honestly Tencent is not the worst gaming megacorp to buy DnD. They're unlikely to go belly up or overtextend and rapidly shed studios like Embracer or THQ cause well, China, and their approach to IP management while producing a lot of shovelware is also pretty amenable to licencing it out to good devs too unlike EA or Activision or Ubisoft. Larian could get another shot with a different DnD property quite easily under Tencent given they already have a connection. The big issue would be if there's any weird censorship poo poo, but the kind of stuff China cares about it's companies doing outside of China is unlikely to really effect Hasbro properties (though I guess we did get the Barbie movie 9 dash line thing lol). To be clear, consolidation sucks and I wish it didn't happen so much, but if Hasbro is actually falling apart then I guess this one's less obnoxious than when healthy companies just gorge on each other to become ever bigger and more monopolistic. A Sometimes Food fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 08:02
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Tencent makes plenty of decent games, because they make everything. They aren't looking to exploit the brand for pennies, they're looking to own everything and profit. The problem is less their approach to making games and more that they are run by legitimately evil people.
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Feb 2, 2024 10:33
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So is every large corporation
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Feb 2, 2024 13:59
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Cold Open Order isn't going down easy, but it's gonna be rough.
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Feb 2, 2024 15:00
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Lol the mimick is mimicking her. Has it been doing that the whole time?
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Feb 2, 2024 15:03
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ikanreed posted:Lol the mimick is mimicking her. Has it been doing that the whole time? I think beforehand she has been largely mimicking the cat.
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Feb 2, 2024 15:11
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Capfalcon posted:Cold Open Some stone cold mr freeze style one liners.
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Feb 2, 2024 15:19
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Hah, I was wondering where Lien and O-Chul were!
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Feb 2, 2024 15:25
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That's confirmation that Calder was awake the whole time. Probably for a century, plus or minus, given Shojo's approximate lifespan and the fact that he was alive for a few years while Soon was still alive. e: also, V just ate a 25d6 attack, ouch
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Feb 2, 2024 15:30
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The fun thing is that the dragon's grievances are pretty legit. Being fully conscious while being imprisoned in his own body and unable to move for like...50?...100? years is basically torture.
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Feb 2, 2024 15:33
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They're legit, but it's also unintentional suffering. That doesn't make it any less bad for Calder but there's somewhat less moral culpability on Serinni's part. Negligence instead of intent. Also, they should definitely kill this dude this time around.
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 16:10
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Also he had an entire army of enthralled cultists. Which, if they had any awareness of being mind-controlled, is not too different from his century(?) of being frozen. Of course rather than any sort of introspection about imprisoning someone in their own mind, Calder just wants to get back to it.
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Feb 2, 2024 16:16
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I have a perhaps odd hangup about mind-control spells in fiction, they strike me as capital E Evil in a way just murder doesn't. I don't can't even truck with the less powerful versions that allow you to improve people's attitudes in games - even as I realize that they're not particularly different than other forms of coercion (e.g. torture, blackmail) and even though I love a good con-artist plot. There's just something different about succeeding in a persuasion/bluff check than casting charm person to me.
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Feb 2, 2024 16:25
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Tencent is currently under pressure to rationalize its investment portfolio, not least of which due to regulatory pressure to return money to shareholders via special dividends or stock buybacks, rather than deploying cheap capital to empire build with no particular payoff or synergy (i.e., that hands-off benevolent negligence that was so attractive. Tencent's M&A activity peaked in 2020) Beijing would like business capital to continue to be cheap, but not to fund purposeless growth Corporate synergies are not always so clumsy as to suddenly announce that a no-name domestic studio will take over the whole IP including flagship titles - rather, there is a steady learning-by-doing process where a subsidiary (e.g. TiMi studios) will take over a spinoff like mobile games or DLC to refine its experience and expertise. It will also slowly launch its own publishing network, server infrastructure, development engines, etc. Obtaining a stake in the IP, or even in the IP owner, builds trust that the partner will not try to run away with the IP (because it would be undermining its own stake). Of course, at the same time, the same pressure to make number go up when some investments inevitably fail to meet expectations also applies. Regardless of whether Tencent buys a license for D&D in the particular, it does make some sense for it to be looking for a known Western IP to hitch a ride on, given its current strategy (to turn outside its saturated and increasingly regulatory-risk-bound domestic market). ronya fucked around with this message at 16:31 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 16:26
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habeasdorkus posted:I have a perhaps odd hangup about mind-control spells in fiction, they strike me as capital E Evil in a way just murder doesn't. I don't can't even truck with the less powerful versions that allow you to improve people's attitudes in games - even as I realize that they're not particularly different than other forms of coercion (e.g. torture, blackmail) and even though I love a good con-artist plot. There's just something different about succeeding in a persuasion/bluff check than casting charm person to me. What do you think of Suggestion?
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Feb 2, 2024 16:28
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SKULL.GIF posted:What do you think of Suggestion? That's the one that makes me think that it's more of a hangup on my part. I don't like the coercive aspect of it even though it doesn't make someone do anything they would never do normally. But it's really not that different than being charismatic and persuasive, or making a good argument for doing something, and in a lot of ways less coercive than ordering someone to do something. And I'm a fuckin' lawyer! My job is to make persuasive arguments that cause judges to do what my clients would like! habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 16:34
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I think of Charm Person/Friends/Suggestion as being like the Jedi Mind trick, the fact that they have a hard line against doing anything harmful to themselves implies to me something more along the lines of "using magic to find the shortest path to them being agreeable" that is otherwise would've been possible if you had perfect charisma, the right argument, and the right motivation to get them to be doing so. Dominate Person is where things get into the realm of being evil, while Geas is more of a "Here's a magically binding contract, which you agreed to or you did something so heinous and wrongful towards me and mine that as the Gods as my Witness and under the Authority of the Archfey of All Four Seasons I doth compel you to carry out this task to its completion, and neither rain, nor snow, nor armies nor disaster, nor natural age nor affliction shall bar you from carrying out mine duty forevermore."
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Feb 2, 2024 17:11
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The proper ethical use of mind control magic is to cast it on oneself.
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Feb 2, 2024 17:16
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I also don't like the Jedi mind trick, but again, I want to be clear that I realize I'm probably being weird about this. It's not like I believe that all forms of coercion are inherently evil, it's just the form this happens to take.
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Feb 2, 2024 17:17
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Serini you are an epic rogue, how are you taking so much damage from an attack with a reflex save?
Taciturn Tactician fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 2, 2024 |
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Feb 2, 2024 17:44
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